Three New Books to Bring on Your Next Trip

Whether you're making it through a long-haul flight or looking for a quick read between meetings, these books deserve a spot in your carry-on.

When you're on a never-ending long-haul flight:China Rich Girlfriend, (Doubleday) Kevin Kwan’s frothy sequel to his debut novel, Crazy Rich Asians, revisits the world of Hong Kong’s and Singapore’s super-super-elite. Kwan himself is from Singapore, and these sharply observed books have an insider’s authority. Girlfriendis also so diverting that it (almost) made me forget that my seatmate on a recent flight from New York to Dubai was muttering to himself nonstop.

When you're between meetings: The men and women in Mia Alvar’s collection of short stories, In the Country (Knopf)—most memorably, expat Filipinos working as engineers and maids in Bahrain—share a profound sense of dislocation, either because of the unfamiliar place they find themselves in or because they no longer recognize their own country. Each story requires a minimal time commitment but feels as complete as a novel.

When you need style inspiration: Writer, stylist, and Condé Nast Travelercontributor Amanda Brooks’s Always Pack a Party Dress(Blue Rider)—an illustrated memoir about what she calls her “(half) life in fashion” and her move from Manhattan to the English countryside—makes the soignélife look (almost) achievable.